The University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) has recently announced that it would begin the contractor pre-qualification process for a new £26 million student support centre at its Preston campus.
Tenos were delighted to have been appointed by leading architects BDP to work alongside their mechanical and electrical services division in order to provide fire engineering strategies and design consultancy support throughout RIBA Work Stages 1, 2 and 3.
The winning design concept by Hawkins Brown Architecture features a biodiverse roof, LED lighting underfoot, a pavilion café bar, and glass façade to create a feeling of light, space and airiness.
Tenos Project Manager, Andrew Foolkes said: “The main challenge was to develop a fire engineered solution that met the architect’s design aspiration to maximise the area of glazing on the elevations, but balance this against the requirement to limit external fire spread to adjacent buildings in close proximity.”
“We developed a successful in solution by calculating the maximum temperature of a fire within the building and then, using our in-house radiation assessment software, evaluate the levels of radiant heat received at relevant boundaries to determine if the design was within acceptable limits.”
With significant experience in education, student accommodation, teaching and recreational facilities sectors, Tenos have also provided fire engineering consultancy services to UCLan for a new engineering innovation centre opposite the Student Support Centre.
The project is due for completion in 2019 and forms part of a £200m 10-year development masterplan for the University.
Photo courtesy of Hawkins Brown Architecture.
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